Yesterday a bearded, Spanish-speaking man washed up on the shore of the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific. He claimed to be a native of El Salvador who was fishing for sharks off the cost of Mexico before being blown out to sea. More amazingly, he claimed he survived on a boat for 13 months by, among other things, catching birds and drinking turtle blood.
What we know:
- the man appeared surprisingly unemaciated and unburnt for spending 13 months on the open ocean
- he initially gave a different name
- he claims he had a 15-year old companion named Ezequiel who died one month into the journey
- there was a two-person fishing boat that disappeared off the coast of Mexico in November 2012. One passenger had the name Ezequiel - but was 38 years old. The other passenger had a totally different name.
- this man's relatives in El Salvador and the United States claim he disappeared 8 years ago and they thought he was dead. They say that the name of the other passenger on the 2012 boat was in fact this man's nickname
Many are skeptical that one could survive that long without a source of fresh water. Others say that all of the fake names might suggest that he was smuggling drugs, not fishing for sharks.
Either one of the greatest stories of human survival ever, or a hoax worth paying attention to and analyzing!
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